Network counts its takings as a cooking king is crowned

Michael Idato and Rachel Olding

THEY came, cooked and conquered – but in the end it all came down to how well they could duplicate the signature guava and custard apple snow egg of the Quay chef Peter Gilmore.

The contenders, Adam Liaw, 31, a lawyer, and Callum Hann, 20, a student, walked in equals. An hour later Liaw was crowned MasterChef.

"You are second no more," the judge Matt Preston told Liaw, after he said he had spent much of his life coming second. "What you have, which very few people have, is a vision about food."

The final clash of television's largest, richest franchise was one of the most keenly awaited television events of the year. Full ratings figures are not yet available, but most industry observers expect it to easily break the record set by last year's finale of 3.74 million viewers nationally.

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In addition to being a huge revenue earner for the Ten Network, the series has also been a magnet for the biggest names in the food world – all happy to align themselves with the MasterChef brand – including the chefs Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Neil Perry, Curtis Stone and Tetsuya Wakuda.

Many others, including the chefs Kylie Kwong and Matt Moran and the cook and food author Maggie Beer, were in the studio to watch Liaw's victory, as was the winner of the first series, Julie Goodwin.

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Liaw described his moment of victory as extraordinary.

"I can only imagine how Julie felt this time last year. I'm over the moon."

"I'm still excited about what's ahead regardless of the result.I didn't feel disappointed at all.I felt elated for Adam."

The show's previously evicted contestants, who were also in attendance, almost unanimously said they knew that Liaw would win.

Jimmy Seervai, who was the fourth-last contestant ejected from the show, said Liaw had been the most consistent cook.

"The first day I met him he was showing me all these photos of things he had cooked. He really is the real deal, a genuine star."

A third series of the show has been confirmed for next year, which will again feature the three judges – George Calombaris, Preston and Gary Mehigan.

Preston said the challenge now was to make the next series bigger and better.

He was looking at ways to change the series for its third instalment, he said, while keeping the spirit of the show, which was "cooking, the joy of cooking and people changing their lives".

The second series of Ten's ratings juggernaut had been a particularly intense competition, said the executive producer, Margaret Bashfield.

"With the first series, no one knew what MasterChef was going to be, so no one knew what the level of cooking would be. What we saw was amazing, but this season the standard was another level up."

The show's winner and runner-up have become close friends. That friendship meant Liaw's victory was always going to be a bittersweet win, Bashfield said.

As a consolation prize, and because he had impressed the judges with his skill, Hann was awarded a scholarship in Calombaris's Melbourne restaurants.

"Adam has almost become a mentor for Callum, who was the youngest competitor in the competition," Bashfield said.

"They both take their food seriously, [but] Callum does it with a young enthusiasm and Adam does it more methodically."

Significantly for Ten, the second series has delivered bigger ratings than the first. It opened to an audience of1.69 million and built steadily to a weeknight audience of about 2million. The finale is expected to have cracked the 4million viewer mark.

A spin-off from the franchise, Junior MasterChef Australia, featuring eight-to-12-year-olds, will be produced later this year.